


Crossroads of History

by imamaryanne



Category: California Diaries - Ann M. Martin, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 12:11:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3446696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imamaryanne/pseuds/imamaryanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ducky has spent the last seven years being a perfect Hogwarts student. But when he has the opportunity to sneak out of the castle at night with four fifth-year girls, he takes it. And so begins an adventure involving a werewolf, Bud McNally, and the world's greatest History of Magic paper.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crossroads of History

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lucida](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucida/gifts).



> "Two bodies fell from the balcony overheard as they reached the ground, and a gray blur that Harry took for an animal sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen.
> 
> "NO!" shrieked Hermione, and with a deafening blast from her wand, Fenrir Greyback was thrown backward from the feebly stirring body of Lavender Brown."
> 
> I'm a little obsessed with thinking about what happened to Lavender here. 
> 
> Many thanks to Meroure for the beta!

When Ducky heard Madam Pince’s shoes tap-tapping across the stone library floor as she kept an eagle-eye out for students talking or harming books, he redoubled his efforts to study harder. He wasn’t sure, exactly, why he did that. But the sound brought out something in him that made him hunch over his school books and pay closer attention. He didn’t want to be caught slacking off by any of the Hogwarts staff, who knew very well that Ducky was one of the responsible students.

Ducky had two things he was supposed to be doing in the library: Studying for N.E.W.T.s and working on a special History of Magic paper. This paper was going to be sent to the British Magical History Society, which he hoped would launch his career as a magical historian. Because all History of Magic books were bone-dry and Ducky was certain that he could be a better historian than anyone in...well, anyone in history. Despite Professor Binns’s best (or worst, depending on your viewpoint) efforts, History of Magic was Ducky’s favorite class. He loved thinking about history and finding those moments that could be described as crossroads. More than once, his brother Ted told him no one wanted to hear about how a single different vote on Goblin legislation could have affected the outcome of the first Goblin rebellion.

He’d already outlined three different topics, and was trying to decide which to actually write about. Goblin rebellion was an easy topic, but so overdone. The history of the Giants and their being forced into reservations was pretty interesting, but anyone with strong anti-giant leanings would probably not like Ducky’s take on it. Then there was the history of the Hogwarts founders. Ducky really wanted to do that, but The Grey Lady had been pretty unhelpful when he tried to interview her.

While he sat staring at the school work in front of him he heard a slight buzzing sound. It wasn’t loud, and it was actually more that he was feeling the buzz rather than hearing it. He looked around and realized the four fifth-year girls at the table next to him were talking animatedly, but they’d put up a muffliato charm so no one would hear them.

Ducky stared at them for a few moments. He knew who these girls were. Everyone knew who they were. In their third year, and in a quest for inter-house unity, they’d started an Inter-House Unity Club. While the club had managed quite a few members, no one took the message to heart quite the way they had. So, despite being four girls from four different houses, they’d become best friends, nearly inseparable the past three years.

Dawn Schafer with the long white-blond hair was the Slytherin in the bunch. Ducky didn’t know her very well, but he knew that she was a special pet of Hagrid’s because of her love of all creatures. He knew her love of animals was a surprise to most people, because Dawn had a little bit of a reputation for being, well, a little bitchy.

Maggie Blume was the Ravenclaw. Maggie was tall and thin with a spiky punk hair cut. Everyone in the wizarding world knew Maggie Blume. The Blumes are one of the oldest pureblood wizarding families, and very wealthy. Maggie was aloof and unimpressed by her parents’ wealth. In fact, rumor had it that Maggie was going to drop out after her fifth year and tour with her band, Vanish as the opening act for the Weird Sisters. All the other Vanish members were in seventh year with Ducky.

Amalia Vargas was the Gryffindor. Amalia was quiet and constantly doodling on scraps of parchment. Ducky didn’t know Amalia well at all, but he knew her older sister, Isabel. Isabel had graduated from Hogwarts just a year prior and she’d been in Hufflepuff with Ducky, but it was well-known she should have been a Ravenclaw. Ducky wondered how Amalia held up under the weight of having an intellectual superstar for a sister. He could sympathize - everyone was disappointed that he not only wasn’t half the quidditch player Ted had been, but he didn’t even like flying on a broom.

Ducky knew the muggleborn Sunny Winslow very well and considered her one of his best friends. They were Hufflepuffs together, and as the resident insomniacs, had gotten to know each other well in the common room on those late nights when neither could sleep. Sunny’s mother had died a couple years earlier, and since then her staying at Hogwarts was always tenuous, academically. Ducky tried to communicate with her telepathically to get back to studying for her O.W.L.s.

Ducky continued to watch the four of them involved in their conversation, heads down and leaning in to each other, their books laying ignored next to them. Despite not being able to hear them, he could tell by their expressions and hand motions that they were being awfully loud.

Sunny noticed Ducky looking at them. He watched as she shushed the others, dropped the muffliato and motioned him over to them. Ducky glanced around for Madam Pince, saw her helping a tiny first-year student carry an oversized book to a table across the room, and pulled his chair over to the girls’ table.

“What’s up?” he whispered, as Maggie quickly reset the charm.

“Who’s on hall patrol tonight?” Sunny asked.

Dawn and Amalia gave Sunny an alarmed look, making Ducky believe that they didn’t want her to ask him that.

“Why?” Ducky asked. “If you’re planning something, please leave me out of it. As Head Boy, you know I’m required to report students out of bed.” While he may not have agreed with all the rules at Hogwarts, he couldn’t very well ignore his duties.

“Ducky,” Dawn leaned forward and gazed at Ducky with her chin in her hand. Her other hand began twirling the end of her silky-blond hair. “You don’t need details about why we’re asking. Right?” Her voice dropped and she batted her lashes and giggled a little.

Sunny laughed. “Dawn, if you’re trying to flirt, you’re flying the wrong hippogriff with this one.”

Ducky turned his head quickly and made a face at Sunny. He’d never told her anything about that. Sunny noticed his look, and said “What? It’s true, isn’t it?”

Ducky sighed. Yes, it was true, but that didn’t mean he was ready to admit it to anyone. Particularly not to Sunny’s three friends, whom he barely even knew. It’s not that he was ashamed of being gay. It was more that he already had trouble finding a place to fit in, and he didn’t need one more thing to make him different. He decided to ignore Sunny’s question in the hopes that no one else would question him further.

Maggie, who was drumming her fingers on the table and staring into space, turned to Ducky. “It’s not like you haven’t used your knowledge of which teacher is on duty to your own advantage.”

She stared into Ducky’s eyes, daring him to contradict her.

“I don’t….” Ducky said weakly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Maggie stared him full in the face. She remained quiet for a few moments, before saying slowly, “Bud McNally is in Ravenclaw with me. I have access to the Ravenclaw common room at any moment of any day. Or night.” She quirked a smile and her eyes seemed to sparkle with the delight of having a secret.

Ducky flushed. The thing with him and Bud was a secret. A big secret considering Bud was a star quidditch player and the Ravenclaw Keeper, personally responsible for Ravenclaw’s four straight Quidditch Cups, and probably a lock for the National Team. Professional quidditch players just aren’t gay. Everyone knows that. That’s why, despite Ducky fancying Bud more than was probably healthy, he was careful to maintain an air of mere acquaintanceship with Bud in public, and not to seem to eager to have more than casual sex in private.

A couple weeks ago, Ducky had gone to the Ravenclaw common room at three in the morning, where he and Bud had hidden behind a couch and gone down on each other. That was the type of thing they normally tried to save for empty classrooms or the Room of Requirement.

These moments with Bud were Ducky’s favorite part of his weeks. He’d always believed most quidditch players had small brains and massive egos, and was pleasantly surprised when he and Bud were paired together in Defense Against the Dark Arts to find that Bud wasn’t like that at all. He was sensitive and funny and cute. And, very importantly, always up for a romp in the Room of Requirement. Or in this case, the floor of the  Ravenclaw common room, where they thought they had some privacy.

But Maggie had seen them. Somehow. Ducky wanted to ask her how she’d caught them. His senses had been on high alert that night, listening for someone coming down the stairs, his eyes wide open for any movements at all. The last thing Ducky needed was to be the cause of Bud getting bullied off his quidditch team. Not to mention keeping his own secrets just a little bit longer.

He stared back at her for a few minutes before sighing. “Professor Binns will be patrolling,” he answered. “Tonight’s a perfect night to sneak out.” It was well-known that Binns patrolled only once on the nights he was scheduled, and that he was so out of it, he wouldn’t even notice a student out of bed so long as that student could manage to be reasonably quiet.

The four girls looked at each other in satisfaction and nodded. Ducky tried again, “Come on guys, your O.W.L’s start in a few weeks. This isn’t the time for things like this-”

“No one asked you,” Dawn snapped.

“Actually, you did.” Ducky replied. “You asked me who was on patrol tonight, which kind of indicates that you’re planning something. I’m Head Boy and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t at least try to talk some sense into you.”

“Hey,” Sunny poked him in the ribs in a friendly way. “Are you going to turn us in?”

“Of course not,” Ducky sighed.

“We’re cool then,” she said. She leaned on his shoulder and patted his knee. “You worry too much.”

“Can you at least tell me what you’re up to?”

Sunny laughed, “Sorry Ducky. No can do.”

“Fine,” Ducky stood up and grabbed his chair, he didn’t have the energy to continue arguing with them. “Fine. You’re welcome for the information, by the way.”

“Thanks,” they all said together, giggling.

Ducky felt a tingle in his body, as he walked through the muffliato charm on the way back to his table. He sat down in his seat, stared at A History of Magic open in front of him, but couldn’t concentrate. He glanced over at the girls, wondering what they were saying.

If he was honest with himself, something he hated being, he’d gotten his hopes up when Sunny had motioned him over. Ducky didn’t have many close friends. Alex had mysteriously left Hogwarts in the middle of sixth year, and his letters, though owl-marked from St. Mungo’s, were cryptic about his whereabouts. Jay, his oldest friend in the world was the Gryffindor seeker and was too busy trying to sleep with every girl in fifth year or higher to spend much time with Ducky.

Sneaking around with Bud and his late nights with Sunny had become the things he looked forward to most. Sure, he was a nice enough guy and people seemed to like him. But he missed having close friends. The thing with Bud was top-secret and they barely acknowledged each other any time before midnight. He’d hoped that Sunny and her friends were going to include him in something. But they hadn’t. They’d used him to get information and left him in the dark about their plans.

If they’d asked, he would have gone along. He would have risked his Head Boy badge, and his upcoming N.E.W.T.s just to feel like he belonged with someone. Just to feel like he had a group of friends who had his back. He was leaving Hogwarts in a month, and he didn’t have a lot of time left to get that feeling.

He kept staring over at the girls’ table. He pulled his pocket watch out noticed it was almost dinner time. Ducky gathered his books and left the library. He glanced back at the table and noticed Sunny watching him leave.

______

 

Ducky stayed in the Hufflepuff common room late that night, not quite certain why he was refusing to go to bed. Sunny, he noted, went to the girls’ dormitory for bed suspiciously early for someone with chronic insomnia. But he stayed quietly in the corner, a pile of school books by the chair which he turned to half face the wall.

By one o’clock in the morning, he was the only one left in the common room. Less than half an hour later, Sunny came tiptoeing out of the girls’ dormitory. She didn’t notice him there as she quietly opened the door and slipped out of the common room. Within seconds of seeing her go, and without thinking it through, he stood up and followed her out the door. This wasn’t like him, doing something so spontaneously. Doing something so against the rules. He hadn’t become Head Boy by breaking a bunch of school rules.

But something had snapped in him this afternoon in the library. Ducky didn’t care about the rules. Because following the rules for nearly seven years had gotten him where? Nearly out of school with few friends and only a handful of really fond memories of great times. Seven years of no risk, no reward. And he may not have been a Gryffindor, dammit, but he needed to do something stupidly risky before he joined the adult world.

He didn’t have to go far. Sunny was standing by herself by the front door, arms crossed in front of her chest, looking around nervously. Ducky hid himself around the corner, watching her.

Ducky waited patiently and a short time later Dawn arrived, followed by Amalia. Their heads were together and they were whispering, but Ducky couldn’t hear what they were saying. A few more minutes passed and Ducky was beginning to wonder where Maggie was, when she appeared out of thin air.

Sunny and Dawn gasped, but Amalia giggled.There was more whispering, and a little giggling, then Maggie turned to the corner where Ducky was hidden and said, “Ducky. If you want to come along, just ask.”

Dawn poked Maggie in the side and frowned at her. Maggie shrugged, “What?” she asked.  

Ducky felt the blush rise in his face, and he stepped out from around the corner. “Sorry.” He didn’t really know why he was apologizing.

Sunny grinned, ran over to him and pulled him toward the group by his arm. “Come on,” she said. “Maggie does an amazing disillusionment charm. You’ve got to see it.”

Ducky was impressed as he realized that was what he’d just seen. Disillusionment charms were advanced magic. Most seventh years couldn’t even perform them and Maggie was only in fifth year.  

Maggie grinned at Sunny, waved her wand and a rope appeared in her hand. Ducky was now even more impressed. No fifth year could do a non-verbal spell, and certainly not one that could conjure objects. Ducky made a mental note to ask Bud what the Ravenclaw’s got up to in their common room. Because he knew that none of his fellow Hufflepuff seventh years could manage the magic Maggie was using. He felt a stab of inadequacy.

“We’ll hold the rope between us,” Maggie explained to Ducky. “So even though we won’t be able to see each other, we can stay together and not trip over each other.”

“All right,” Ducky said, waiting to see if the obvious answer would come forth. When it didn’t, he said, “Where are we going?”

“Sunny’ll explain when we get outside,” Maggie answered.

“We’re going out on the grounds?” Ducky looked around, noticing that the girls were all wearing jumpers. He was in a t-shirt.

“Shh.” Maggie commanded. Each of them held a section of the rope and lined up obediently. Ducky was bringing up the rear. Maggie went down the line, tapping her wand on the tops of each of their heads and murmuring an incantation. Ducky watched in awe as they turned invisible. When he looked closely, he could see a slight, almost unnoticable, imperfection in the air where the girls were.

When they were all invisible, Maggie took her place at the front of the line, grabbed the rope with one hand, tapped herself on the top of her head and she also became invisible. Then the disembodied wand tapped the rope, which also disappeared from view, though remained rough and tangible under Ducky’s hands.

Within moments, the rope tugged Ducky forward and he slowly began following the four girls. Once they made it through the front door (the large wooden door squeaked loudly, causing all of them to pause, but no teacher came looking), Sunny, immediately in front of Ducky, began speaking quietly to him.

“Some kind of creature is being kept in the Shrieking Shack. We’re going to check it out.”

“Wait - we’re leaving the grounds?” Ducky asked. “We’re going into Hogsmeade? How did you find this out?”

“Yes, we’re leaving the grounds, but not in the way you’re thinking. And Dawn overheard Professor Longbottom talking to Professor Hagrid and that guy who works as Slughorn’s assistant talking about it.”

“They can’t just lock a living creature up in that place!” Dawn said. “I think they’re up to something and we need to find out what.”

“You can’t honestly believe that Hagrid and Longbottom are doing something nefarious,” Ducky said to Dawn. “They’re both war heroes. And I thought you and Hagrid were in agreement on loving all creatures.”

“I want to check this out. Make sure everything’s all right. I don’t trust that potions assistant of Slughorn’s.”

“That’s Draco Malfoy,” Maggie said. “You know. Those Malfoys.”

“Which Malfoys?” Sunny asked. Sunny was muggleborn.

Ducky gave her a quick explanation. The Malfoys had been Death Eaters during the war. Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father, was currently serving life in Azkaban. Draco and his mother had gotten off after Harry Potter spoke on their behalf.

“Tsk,” Dawn said. “Death eaters locking up a creature!”  

Ducky thought Dawn’s logic was poor. If anyone could be trusted, especially when it came to showing kindness to animals, it was Professor Hagrid. And, though there was a lot of mystery surrounding the fifteen year old wizarding war, he knew that Professor Longbottom had played a part in defeating Tom Riddle. Ducky saw no reason to distrust either Hagrid or Longbottom, and if they trusted this Malfoy guy, then so did he.

Still, Ducky wasn’t an idiot. If he wanted friends, he’d better not argue with a group of people who actually let him hang out with them.

Ducky assumed no one else felt like arguing with Dawn, because Maggie changed the subject. “Once when I was wandering around after I first learned to do a disillusionment charm, I saw Professor Longbottom having sex with that woman who runs the Leaky Cauldron. It was in his greenhouse.” She said this as though she was saying she saw him doing something as boring as grading papers or getting a haircut.

“What?” Sunny, Dawn and Amalia screeched together.

“I thought he was gay,” Ducky said, without thinking.

Sunny guffawed, “You mean you were hoping he was gay.”

Ducky didn’t answer, but did shrug his shoulders, knowing no one would be able to see his reaction.

“He’s so hot,” Amalia said. Ducky thought she was saying it to take attention away from him basically outing himself to them and confirming what Sunny had said earlier in the library. He felt a rush of gratitude toward her. No one said anything else for a while, and Ducky had to wonder if his being gay was really that big a shock to any of them.

Certainly he’d been called names, mostly by the cro-magnon quidditch players, but even students younger than him called him ponce. Or fairy. Or Dandy Ducky. No one ever asked him about girlfriends. He’d never really outed himself to anyone, other than Bud, and that really only happened after Bud outed himself to Ducky first. Ducky was suddenly struck dumb by the fact that his sexual orientation had just been assumed by so many for so long, and he wondered why he’d never realized it before.  

Ducky was concentrating so hard on following the girls without bumping into Sunny, that he didn’t realize they were walking toward the Whomping Willow until they were nearly on top of it. “Guys?” he asked. “You know we’re going to hit the Whomping Willow?” His voice cracked embarrassingly on the last syllable, completely destroying his attempt to seem cool and brave.

Someone at the front of the line, he couldn’t tell if it was Maggie or Dawn, snorted in derision. “You worry too much.”

If worrying about getting pummeled to death by a tree was ridiculous, Ducky supposed he was ridiculous.

“Stop,” Maggie ordered. Ducky felt the rope slacken a little bit, and he assumed she’d let go. Then he watched in astonishment as a stick raised itself off the ground, made its way into the willow tree and nudged a knot on the trunk. The willow froze. It didn’t even move, not a single leaf blew in the slight breeze.

Ducky felt an odd cool, dry sensation, as the disillusionment charm lifted, and he was able to see the four girls again. “C’mon,” Maggie ordered, and the rest of them followed her under the tree. “This way,” she said.

Ducky couldn’t believe it. He’d been so terrified of the whomping willow, that he’d never been up close to it, preferring to give it a wide berth. But at the bottom of the trunk was a small opening that Maggie was crawling through on her hands and knees. They followed in turn and made their way through a long narrow passage so short that Ducky had to crawl on his hands and knees.

“How’d you figure this out?” Ducky asked a few minutes into the journey.

“I’m not giving up my secrets to the Head Boy,” Maggie laughed from the front. “No offense.”

Ducky was a little offended, but didn’t say anything. He hated that his fellow students believed that just because he was in regular contact with Headmistress McGonagall, he was going to rat them out. He’d been pleased initially when he’d been named Head Boy, but as they year went on, he regretted it more and more.  

After a good fifteen minutes of crawling, Ducky’s knees were aching, but he noticed the passageway was rising slightly. “We’re almost here,” he heard Maggie whisper from the front.

Everyone slowed down and got quiet. From the rear of the line, Ducky couldn’t quite see what was happening, until Maggie at the front of the line lit her wand.  He crawled slowly forward behind Sunny.

There was a trap door in the ceiling and the girls were hoisting themselves up through it. Ducky followed them and ended up in a dark room.

“Is this it?” he whispered, “Is this the shrieking shack?” His stomach was jittery with nerves. Ducky wasn’t sure if it was the nerves about being in a haunted house, or nerves from breaking so many school rules.

“Yes.” Maggie said. “Light your wands.”

“Lumos,” they all murmured, and the room was bathed in a soft glow from five wands.

Ducky looked around. They were in a sitting room, with a few stuffed chairs that were shabby and mostly covered with dusty sheets. The chairs appeared to have been thrown into the room randomly, and on one with the cover falling off, Ducky could see the chair had been scratched and stuffing was coming out. The one window was covered in dust, completely obscuring the light from the full moon outside.

Maggie tilted her head toward the door. “Let’s head up stairs. There’s one bedroom up there.” Ducky didn’t even want to know how she knew the layout of the shack.

They tiptoed after her, trying to remain as silent as possible. The house was eerie. Silent and, but for a those few chairs, empty. When they got upstairs they ended up on a small landing that had two closed doors. “That one’s the bedroom,” Maggie whispered, pointing to the door on the right.

She leaned over and pushed the door open. At first glance, the room appeared to be empty, except for a bed and a small bedside table. Ducky saw it first. An animal, asleep in the corner. He gasped, and pointed his wand light toward it.

“It’s a dog,” Dawn whispered as she stepped forward.

“Be careful,” Ducky and Sunny whispered at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled.

Dawn shot them a look, rolled her eyes, and stepped softly toward the sleeping creature.

“Dawn,” Maggie breathed. “That’s not a dog that’s a wolf!” Maggie, Amalia, Sunny and Ducky all stepped back, but Dawn continued forward.

“No,” she answered. “Look at the snout, and the tail. You guys,” she turned around. Her eyes shining. “This isn’t a wolf - it’s a werewolf.”

“We need to get out of here,” Ducky said, reaching out toward Dawn.

“No,” she waved him off. “Look, it’s sleeping. I think it’s tame.”

“Even feral animals sleep,” Ducky pointed out. “And they probably all look peaceful while they do it.”

Dawn ignored him and crouched next to the animal. Ducky’s palms were positively sweating,

The werewolf awoke at that moment. Its head lifted off its paws and it looked at Dawn with widened amber eyes.

Their textbook pointed out that one way to spot the difference between a wolf and werewolf were the human eyes. Ducky hadn’t understood that until the moment he saw this werewolf. Its eyes were bright and conveyed both an emotion and an intelligence that were purely human.

“We should go,” he said again.

“Wimp,” Dawn goaded.

Sunny turned to Ducky, “They’re in Gryffindor and Slytherin,” she pointed out. “They aren’t happy unless we’re all near death.”

“Well this Hufflepuff is going downstairs,” he said. “I’ll send some professors in to recover your bodies tomorrow.”

“I’m coming too,” Sunny said.

“Wait, look.” Dawn instructed.

Sunny and Ducky turned from their spot at the door in time to see the werewolf nose Dawn gently. She scratched it behind the ear, and the wolf looked positively pleased. It jumped onto the bed, turned a few times before lying down to go back to sleep.

“I don’t think it wants to be bothered,” Dawn said. “We should go.”

“For someone who was so anxious few minutes ago, you’ve had quite a change of heart,” Sunny murmured.

“It’s about respecting the animal,” Dawn huffed.

“Human,” Ducky corrected. “Werewolves are humans, not animals.”

Dawn turned to look at the wolf, who was curled on the bed watching them with wary eyes. “It doesn’t look human at the moment.”

“But it’s not even acting like a wolf,” Ducky argued. “He, or she, is human every other day of the month, right?”

Dawn shrugged. Ducky rolled his eyes. For all her posturing about animals and their feelings, Dawn didn’t seem to make the connection between the way she treats animals and people.

They headed back down to the sitting room. “What are we going to do?” Dawn asked the rest of them.

“Do about what?” Amalia asked.

Dawn looked around at all of them, and they all looked blankly back. “What are we going to do about the fact that the school is hiding a werewolf. Who do you think it is?”

“It’s probably just a safe spot for someone to turn,” Maggie said. “That seems like something Hagrid or Longbottom would do, right? Help someone out like that?”

“I think it’s a student,” Dawn announced. “Who could it be?”

They all thought for a moment. Finally Ducky said, “Maybe it’s none of our business. Maybe he doesn’t want everyone knowing he’s a werewolf. So let’s just keep this a secret.”

Dawn snorted, but Amalia pointed out “That wolf wasn’t dangerous.”

Dawn looked suspicious, “I wonder why. What’s the point of them even teaching us about how dangerous werewolves are if that,” she pointed upstairs, “is what we’re really facing?”

“Maybe it’s Wolfsbane?” Maggie suggested. “It’s a potion that werewolves can take to make them less….wolfish during their change.” She paused for a moment, “But it’s very difficult to make. Only the best potions masters can handle it. And it’s expensive. And it’s not supposed to work quite that well.” Ducky was, again, impressed with Maggie’s knowledge.

“I think if there’s a werewolf in our school,” Dawn persisted, “Wolfsbane or not, people have a right to know.”

Ducky rounded on her, “That’s a load of dragon-shit. Whoever that is upstairs has a right to keep his condition secret. Okay? You don’t get to start rumors about anyone.”

Dawn rolled her eyes, “Look, Ducky. I’m sure you’re all about people keeping secrets, but your gay thing isn’t that much of a secret anyway. This thing about Bud McNally though…” She drifted off, a clear question and desire for gossip in her voice.

“Hey,” Ducky said loudly. “I’d rather have everyone in school talking about me and Bud than have one person be suspected of being a werewolf. Do you know how werewolves are treated? Do you know how hard it’s going to be for him,” Ducky pointed to the ceiling, “to get a job if everyone knows he’s part wolf? Sure, I haven’t told anyone I’m gay, which, hey, I’m gay by the way, but that isn’t going to stop me from getting in at the Magical Historical Society next year, yeah?”

“This stays between us,” Sunny said, firmly.

“Right,” Maggie nodded.

“Absolutely,” Amalia said.

They all turned to Dawn. She looked unsure, but finally sighed, “Fine. But isn’t anyone a little curious about who it is?”

“Yes,” Maggie said plainly. “But you have to understand that you don’t have a right to know everything about everyone.”

“The Bud thing….” Ducky trailed off.

Sunny grinned and hooked her elbow through his, “That can also stay between us.”

______

 

Three days later, Ducky was rushing toward the library. He’d finally decided on a topic for his Historical Society paper and was anxious to get to the library to look up everything on Giants being forced on to reservations in the fifteenth century. Standing up to Dawn about keeping the werewolf’s secret had made him feel unusually confident and so he decided that he’d write a paper sympathetic to the Giants’ plight, and be damned anyone at the Historical Society who disagreed with it.

The wolf was constantly on his mind. He found himself staring into his classmates’ eyes, trying to match up their eyes with the amber eyes of the wolf, but hadn’t seen anything yet.  

He’d nearly gotten to the library, when he heard a voice calling, “Mr. McCrae!” He turned and saw Professor McGonagall standing there with Sunny and Maggie next to her. “This way, please.”

Ducky locked eyes with Sunny, who shrugged. They followed Professor McGonagall through the halls silently, and when McGonagall also snagged Amalia and Dawn, he knew they were in trouble.

As they made their way to her office, Ducky and the girls exchanged worried looks. Gods, Ducky thought. Please don’t let me get kicked out of school three weeks before my N.E.W.Ts.

He was expecting an empty office, but instead they walked in on a very pretty woman with curly dark-blonde hair, talking animatedly with the portrait of Albus Dumbledore. She turned toward them as they walked in the office and Ducky noticed her eyes.

They were the wolf’s eyes. Unmistakably amber, with a spark of mischievousness about them. The woman smiled as she saw them, and Ducky was relieved to see that she didn’t seem angry that five students had interrupted her night in the Shrieking Shack. Then he noticed her neck. Scarred and red, it looked as though her throat had been slashed or bitten a long time ago.

“Sit,” McGonagall ordered. She waved her wand and five chairs appeared in front of her desk. Ducky and the girls sat obediently.

“This is Lavender Brown,” McGonagall began. “She was a student here fifteen years ago, and was injured during the battle of Hogwarts. Do you want to guess what her injuries were?”

They were silent for a moment before Ducky spoke up nervously, “She was attacked by a werewolf?”

“And what would make you guess that, Mr. McCrae?” McGonagall asked, raising an eyebrow at him inquisitively.

“Er…” Ducky’s throat went dry and he glanced at the other girls. Their wide eyes not-so-subtly hinting that they thought he said the wrong thing and gave them away. All at once, he realized there was no way to answer McGonagall’s question without letting her know exactly how he knew Lavender Brown was a werewolf. Finally he answered very quietly “I don’t know.”

“How?” McGonagall pressed.

“The..er…” Ducky pointed toward his throat. “The scars on her neck?”

“Are you sure it wouldn’t be that you saw her in her wolf form several nights ago?”

“Um….” Ducky trailed off. Gods, why had he spoken up in the first place? “Yes. I suppose that too.”

Dawn let out an impatient sigh, and Ducky glanced at her. He wasn’t exactly sure what she thought he should have said. They’d been caught, might as well not lie about it at this point.

McGonagall sounded exasperated, “And may I ask what you five were doing out of bed and in Hogsmeade?”

Ducky kept his mouth shut. This trip hadn’t been his plan, it was the girls’. Let them answer for it. After a few moments uncomfortable silence, where McGonagall stared them down, Dawn blurted out, “We heard there was a creature being kept in the shrieking shack and wanted to check it out ourselves.” She sounded defiant, as though she was daring McGonagall to get mad at them for that.

“Who did you hear that from?” Lavender asked.

The five of them looked at her. She didn’t sound angry. In fact, she sounded pleasantly curious.

Dawn shrugged, “I don’t know,” she mumbled, slouching in her seat.

“The important thing here,” McGonagall stated, “Is that there were five students out of bed in the middle of the night. Five students who not only left the castle, but left the grounds and went all the way into Hogsmeade and put themselves in danger by confronting a werewolf-”

“She wasn’t dangerous!” Dawn exclaimed.

“You couldn’t have known that,” McGonagall pointed out. “The only reason Ms. Brown wasn’t dangerous is because she is working with someone on improving a potion called wolfsbane.”

“How does that work?” Maggie asked.

“That’s beside the point,” McGonagall answered. “You students can’t go wandering around Hogsmeade after dark. I’m going to take fifty points from each of your houses, all five of you will have a week’s worth of detention. And Mr. McCrae...” She drifted off.

“Yes?” Ducky asked.

“I’m sorry to do this, but I’ll need your Head Boy badge.”

Ducky liked Professor McGonagall, but he knew better than to argue with her. He pulled his badge off of his robe and handed it over to her without a word. Ducky would have thought that losing his Head Boy position would have been a blow. But he felt oddly calm about it.  

“Now,” she said, leaning forward and clasping her hands in front of her. “We don’t need to know how you knew Ms. Brown was going to be in the Shrieking Shack, nor do I especially want to hear how you managed to sneak out of the school. But I do need to stress the importance of keeping Ms. Brown’s condition and her being here in the strictest of confidence.”

“We haven’t told anyone!” Sunny assured her quickly. “We all decided not to say anything to anyone.” They all glanced at each other, Ducky giving Dawn a warning look.

“Good,” Professor McGonagall said. “Let’s keep it that way.” She looked around at them, “You are dismissed.”

“Wait,” Lavender said quickly. “I want to ask them something.”

Professor McGonagall hadn’t expected Lavender to speak up, but said, “Yes. Of course.”

“What do you learn in History of Magic about The War?”

“The war?” Ducky asked after a moment of surprise. “The recent one? The Tom Riddle war?”

Lavender nodded.

“It’s….” Ducky glanced at McGonagall. Ducky had a lot of problems with how History of Magic was taught in the school, and was unsure if his honesty would offend the Headmistress. “We don’t,” he answered flatly. “Professor Binns doesn’t get past the nineteenth century.”

“Right,” Lavender nodded “Well, Professor Dumbledore was just telling me that Dumbledore’s Army is still exists. Right?”

“Yes,” Maggie answered. “I’m in it. And so are Amalia and Sunny.”

“Do you know about the history of the D.A.?”

Maggie shook her head, “We know that it was started by some students to learn defensive magic.”

“Well.” Lavender said. “I was one of the inaugural members of the D.A. I’ve been there since the beginning, and I’m just really happy to hear students are still preparing themselves.” She smiled. She had a nice smile, Ducky thought. The type of smile that reached her eyes.

Everyone stood up to leave, but Ducky took his time gathering his bags, wondering if he should be bold and ask Lavender what he wanted. As he got to the door, he turned around, “Hey, I was wondering if I could ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Well,” Ducky hitched his backpack higher on his back. “You know, nothing’s been written  about the war. It was so recent, so there hasn’t been the historical research and writing on it because everyone who lived through it is still pretty much alive, right?

“Yeah,” Lavender said slowly.

“So. There’s this whole generation now, me and my friends, and we don’t know very much about it. Because I was only two when it happened, so I don’t remember it. But if there isn’t anyone writing about it, those of us who weren’t there can’t learn from it.

“So my question is, why hasn’t anyone written about it? Professor Binns has no interest in teaching us anything this recent and it’s something I’d love to read because I’m interested in history, but it’s something everyone should read.”

Lavender tilted her head, and studied Ducky carefully. “I think everyone wants to give Harry the first chance at telling the story.”

“So why doesn’t he?” Ducky persisted.

Lavender laughed. “Oh. Well, it’s because he’s Harry. He’s a giant ball of issues and humility. He won’t be able to write anything until he works out his own neuroses about surviving the war.”

“Mr. McCrae is our star history pupil,” McGonagall said to Lavender. “He’s working not only on his N.E.W.T.’s, but is also trying to become a magical historian.” McGonagall gave Ducky a rare smile, and he felt a surge of pride. “He’s writing a paper for the Historical Society.”

“What’s it on?” Lavender asked him.

“The creation of the reservations for Giants and how that started a domino effect of oppressive policies against the Giants.”

Lavender raised her eyebrows, “You interested in Giants rights?”

Ducky shrugged, “Not especially. Just an interesting topic.”

“Hmm.” Lavender said thoughtfully. “Well, all right then. If you’re wondering about if Harry’s going to write a book, I can always ask him.”

“You know Harry Potter?” Ducky asked.

Lavender laughed, “Well. We were in the same year in Gryffindor, and I even dated Ron Weasley-”

“Really?” Ducky asked.

Lavender smiled and chuckled. “Gods that was so long ago. Anyway. Good luck on your N.E.W.Ts and your history paper.”

“Thanks,” he said.

“I’ll see you around,” Lavender said.

Ducky turned around, ready to ask what she meant but Professor McGonagall shut the door before he could get the question out.

________________

 

Ducky finished wiping the come off his stomach and flopped back down and cuddled into Bud’s side. He was slightly out of breath.

They were lying on the floor of the History of Magic classroom, and Bud had performed an amazing cushioning charm beneath them so Ducky couldn’t even tell he was lying on stone.

After a minute of quiet snuggling Bud said to Ducky, “So. Are you going to tell me what you did to lose your Head-Boy badge?”

“No,” Ducky answered. “I can’t. It involves something I promised people I wouldn’t talk about.”

Bud turned to his side and held himself up on his elbow. “Even to me? You can’t tell me?”

Ducky looked at him. “I can’t tell anyone.”

Bud frowned slightly. “But I’m your boyfriend.”

Ducky lay in shocked silence for a moment. “You just called yourself my boyfriend,” he said quietly, as he leaned on his elbow, facing Bud. All this pretending that he was into being casual was for nothing?

Bud blushed slightly. “Well. I am,” he paused. “Right?”

“I don’t know,” Ducky answered. “We’ve never really talked about it.”

“Well. I don’t go down on guys who aren’t my boyfriend.”

“I thought we were just fooling around,” Ducky answered honestly, his stomach jumping hopefully.

“Oh.” Bud’s face fell. “I see.” He stood up and grabbed his boxer shorts. “I thought we kind of had something here.”

“Don’t go!” Ducky blurted, panicked. “I’m not saying I don’t want to be your boyfriend. You just surprised me. That’s all.”

Bud turned to him. He hadn’t gotten dressed yet, but was clutching his pants and trousers to his chest. “So. What do you want us to be?” It sounded like he was challenging Ducky, ready to argue.

“Boyfriends?” Ducky asked quietly.

Bud smiled slightly and lowered his arms, dropping his trousers to the floor. “You sure?”

Ducky laughed, “Yes. Yes.” He patted the floor next to him, “Come back down here.”

Bud sat next to him and Ducky breathed a sigh of relief. They locked eyes and laughed a little awkwardly. After a few moments, Ducky said, “I still don’t think I can tell you about the Head Boy thing, though.”

Bud looked at him carefully. “That’s OK.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Ducky explained, unsure if Bud would be put out by his keeping secrets already. “I just promised.”

“It’s fine,” Bud assured him.

“Anyway,” Ducky changed the subject. “It’s come to my attention that my meager attempt to keep being gay a secret isn’t really working. It’s something everyone just assumes about me.”

“So?”

“So. If you don’t want to be outed, we shouldn’t really hang out much together during the day. It’ll raise suspicions.” Ducky thought of the quidditch team scouts he’d seen in the stands during Ravenclaw’s last match.

“I’m out,” Bud said,sounding very much like he thought Ducky knew that.

Ducky was shocked, “What? Out to who?”

Bud started ticking off on his hands, “My parents, my brother, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, my quidditch team, my best friends, my neighbors, the muggle girl down the street who kept flirting with me, the scout from the Chudley Cannons who came to watch me play, my owl, my pet dog, the gnomes in my mum’s garden, and really anyone else who asks. So, you know, everyone.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah,” Bud nodded and started giving Ducky a back rub. “It’s not bad at all, being out.”

“And no one’s made fun of you?”

Bud gave Ducky a look. At six feet four inches, Bud wasn’t exactly the poster boy for bullying victim. Finally he answered, “Well, Jay did say I probably liked being quidditch keeper because I loved having balls fly at my face.”

Ducky bit his lip to try and hide a smile. “I thought it was kind of funny,” Bud said grinning. “He wasn’t being mean, it was a joke. Totally something Jay would say.”

“Then why have we been sneaking around?”

Bud shrugged and kissed Ducky on the shoulder, “I thought it was for you. I thought you were trying to stay in the closet.”

“I am,” Ducky said. “Or, I was. I don’t think I want to anymore. And I don’t think I was doing a terrific job of being closeted anyway.”

“All right. Let’s be out together then.”

“Out together,” Ducky murmured. “What’s that going to entail?”

Bud ran his fingertips down Ducky’s side and leaned his chin on Ducky’s shoulder. “Well, we don’t exactly need to snog in the halls. But we can sit together in the Great Hall. We can study for N.E.W.Ts together. Maybe hold hands?”

Ducky turned toward Bud and grabbed his hand and kissed his fingers, “That sounds amazing.”

Bud leaned in and kissed Ducky lightly on the lips, “It’s not scary, being out. You’ll find it’s actually more of a relief.”

Ducky smiled under Bud’s lips, “I hope so,” he murmured, deepening the kiss before Bud could respond.

_______

 

Bud was right. Over the next two days, he ate with Bud and went to the library with Bud, and on two occasions, held hands in the hallway with Bud. No one seemed surprised with any of it. Bud had outed himself to enough people, and enough of those same people had always assumed Ducky was gay that there was no need for some big announcement.  Both Maggie and Jay smirked at them at lunch that first day, but being out and gay at Hogwarts was surprisingly a lot like being closeted and assumed to be gay.

It was, as Bud had promised, more of a relief. Ducky even wrote a letter to his parents in Ghana and Ted in London coming out. Which, maybe it would have been braver to wait until the summer hols and do it in person. But now that he was out, he was anxious to let everyone know.

As he and Bud were walking out of the Great Hall together the next Saturday after dinner, they were met in the hallway by Lavender Brown.

“Hi,” she said, stopping in front of Ducky. She glanced quickly at his hand interlocked with Bud’s but didn’t say anything, “Christopher McCrae, right?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “That’s me.”

“Can you come with me?”

“I….” he drifted off and glanced at Bud, who looked utterly nonplussed. “Yeah. Sure.”

Ducky gave Bud what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’ll see you in the library,” he promised.

“Was that Bud?” Lavender asked in a friendly manner as she and Ducky headed toward the west end of the building.

“How did you know about Bud?”

“I overheard you in the shrieking shack that night. When the five of you went down to the sitting room, I was eavesdropping. So I guess you aren’t keeping things such a secret anymore.”

Ducky smiled, “I guess not.” They walked for another few moments and Ducky asked, “So, what’s this about?”

“Well,” Lavender began. “I was doing some thinking about you and your History of Magic paper you’re writing, and how poor the History class is here, and how the war’s only been fifteen years gone, but the students today don’t know anything about it, because no one who was in it wants to talk about it.”

“All right….” Ducky said slowly. He was curious where this conversation was headed and where they were going.

“So I talked to Hermione Granger, and told her about it. Hermione’s really smart, her nose is always in a book, and the idea of students getting an improper education totally boils her cauldron. It took her about five microseconds to talk to Harry and lecture him about his place in magical history and how he owes it to your generation to talk about the war. And if he doesn’t do it, someone else will.” Lavender paused for a breath. “Harry agreed with her. And this is where you come in.”

They’d ended up on the seventh floor, in front of the door leading to the Room of Requirement. Lavender stopped in front of it. “This is where I come in?”

“You need to write a paper for the Magical Historical Society. The history of the war needs to be told. And the history of the war, for most of us anyway, begins with Dumbledore’s Army.”

“All right?” Ducky said uncertainly. “And you want me to help?”

Lavender nodded. “I know you’ve already started your paper on the Giants, and it’ll be a lot of work in a short amount of time to scrap that and write about Dumbledore’s Army. But this could get you in big at the Magical Historical Society.”

Ducky’s eyes widened. “Why me?”

“We can trust you,” Lavender said. “I told you I overheard you in the Shrieking Shack. You showed that you care about the truth. You took the time to protect a werewolf when a lot of people wouldn’t. You argued with that blonde-haired girl about protecting my identity.”

Ducky felt pleased with himself. “So what’s in here?” he asked, tapping on the door.

Lavender smiled, and opened the door, “We have several inaugural members of Dumbledore’s Army here to be interviewed by you.”

Ducky followed her into the room, which had transformed itself into a large lounge-like area. There were chairs and couches full of people chatting and laughing and even a corner with toys where some small children were playing. When they walked in, everyone quieted down and looked up at them.

“Guys,” Lavender said, “This is Christopher McCrae, the guy I told you about. Christopher, should we call you Chris?”

“I usually go by Ducky,” he said, his voice squeaking embarrassingly. “But Chris is fine.” Might as well try to shed the terrible childhood nickname now.

“Chris, this is Dumbledore’s Army. The original.” She started pointing around the room making quick introductions. It was an overwhelming amount of people. He recognized Harry Potter and his wife Ginny, as well as Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, because everyone knew who they were. He recognized the guy from the joke shop in Diagon alley and Professor Longbottom.  He made a special effort to remember the names Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas because they were holding hands and seeing a gay couple pleased him. The names of the others were too numerous to remember immediately.  

“Hi,” Ducky said to everyone. He knew his eyes were as wide as saucers, but he couldn’t seem to wipe the shocked look off his face. Harry Potter was standing in front of him. _Harry Effing Potter_ was going to talk to _him_ about Dumbledore’s Army.

Ducky watched as Lavender settled herself on the couch next to an Indian girl. He nervously opened his bag for parchment and a quill, and sat down in the chair that was front and center of the room. He had no plan of attack, no interview questions in mind, so he was going to wing it.

“Well,” he said, laughing a little. “I wasn’t expecting, you know, all this.” Everyone laughed along with him. “So can we start from the beginning? Who’s idea was Dumbledore’s Army?”

“Ron’s and Hermione’s,” Harry Potter answered. Ducky began scribbling, “The ministry had forced a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor on us, Dolores Umbridge, and she was awful.”

Ducky took notes until his hand hurt, then powered through his aching hand to write down everything Potter and the other members of Dumbledore’s Army said.

Ducky's favorite thing about history is thinking about crossroads. Those moments where the world can turn one way or the other. He was smart enough to recognize his own crossroads - that night he stayed up and waited to see if Sunny was going to sneak out. His personal history turned in the moment he decided to follow her. It had been a great few weeks. He had a group of friends, he had a boyfriend and no one seemed to care that he's gay. Not only that, he was sitting there talking to some of the most famous wizards in history and they were going to help him  _own_  this paper. All of that because he followed Sunny out of the Hufflepuff dorm room one night. 


End file.
